We haven't got a lot of money to spend on a striker, says Erith & Belvedere boss Chris Cosgrove

ERITH & BELVEDERE manager Chris Cosgrove says there is no money in the pot to bring in a prolific striker.

The Deres suffered their seventh league defeat of the season when they went down to a 2-1 home defeat to an impressive Aveley side last Sunday.

Central midfielder Jamie Lawrence is the club’s leading goalscorer this season after maintaining his 100% success rate from the penalty spot with his fifth goal of the season.

Erith & Belvedere clinched the Kent League double under former manager Micky Collins this season and have struggled in their inaugural Ryman League Division One North campaign.

The Welling-based outfit are in the bottom seven, having collected five wins and two draws from fifteen league games.

Cosgrove knows exactly where his problems lie.

“Every team needs a striker, don’t they?

“Every team can say they need a striker, but top strikers cost a lot of money. We haven’t got a lot of money to spend.

“We try to bring young boys through. I think Luke Tanner’s a good striker and we do score goals.

“But the boys we’ve got, they will improve.  We’ve got an average age of 23 years of age so they’re learning and our strikers are learning.  The youngsters do need time to improve.”

Erith & Belvedere are on the road for their next two games – at Ware on Saturday and at Heybridge Swifts on Tuesday, 12 November.

“Two tough games again,” warned Cosgrove.

Ware welcome The Deres sitting in the bottom three, having collected two wins and four draws from sixteen games and they can move to within four points of the Kent side if they win.

“Ware’s near the bottom, but don’t underestimate Ware,” said Cosgrove.

“Ware are a good team. They going to be battling. They’ve been beaten by a few decent teams by the odd goal. We’ll give them full respect.

“Every game at this level is a cup final and you’ve got to be on it. We understand it’s a big, long hard season and we’ve got to make sure we get our aim in the league and stay up in the league, which I believe is what we will do.”

Looking ahead to their midweek trip to Scraley Road to face third-placed Heybridge Swifts, Cosgrove said: “Long way to go. It’s better than Wroxham I suppose! That’s what you’ve got to deal with though. We’ll deal with it. We’ll have a team out there. We’ll have fifteen players out there raring to go. 

“One thing about the team, the attitude and the team spirit is really good. We’ll all up for it.  We are all up for the fight.”

Cosgrove said after Sunday’s game that a total of 46 points from 46 games will maintain their Ryman League status.

He added: “We ain’t silly. We didn’t come in this league to win it. We know we’re going to win some, lose some and draw some. We know it’s going to be like that.

“We’re here for the battle. We’ll be there, we’ll pull together and we’ll fight another day and we’ll get more points this year, don’t worry about that.”

Erith & Belvedere’s next home game will be against second-placed Witham Town on Sunday, 17 November (3pm).

The game against Aveley attracted the club’s largest crowd of the season, which proves that club’s should switch their fixtures to either Friday nights or Sunday afternoons to attract larger attendances.

Visit Erith & Belvedere’s website:  www.erithbelvederefc.co.uk

Ware  v  Erith & Belvedere
Ryman League Division One North
Saturday 9^th November 2013
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Wodson Park, Wadesmill Road, Ware, Hertfordshire SG12 0UQ